Associate Artists

Benjamin is a blind actor, theatre maker and audio description consultant based in Nottingham. Ben was previously the Ramps on the Moon Agent for Change at Sheffield Theatres and Trainee Artistic Director at Extant Theatre.

Ben has acted in many productions including Ramps on the Moon’s Much Ado About Nothing which toured to Nottingham Playhouse in 2022. Ben received a commendation at the National Theatre and Sunday Times‘ prestigious Ian Charleson awards for this role. He has also worked as Associate Director on plays at Sheffield and Leeds.

“I am absolutely delighted to be the new Associate Artist at Nottingham Playhouse. Having worked there as both an actor and access consultant, I am hugely excited to get to know, and learn from, everyone across the organisation.

 “I’m really keen to build closer connections and deepen relationships between Nottingham Playhouse and other theatre makers in the area. The East Midlands has such a vibrant community of artists, and I see this job as the opportunity to dive in and get to know everyone better. I am very interested to see Adam work and to see what it takes to be an artistic leader, continuously producing work on a large scale of the highest quality.”

Laura is a playwright, screenwriter and actor from the East Midlands, passionate about exploring emotion-driven narratives that ask questions about our relationship to place. Laura was Associate Artist at Nottingham Playhouse from 2024-205, and has been retained in a new role, as Associate Literary Artist.

Her work is focused on untold female perspectives and interrogating the female experience, gaze and voice, exploring what it means to be a strong woman in different contexts and using genre as a lens for storytelling. Laura’s first feature film Lapwing was released in cinemas in 2021 and received positive reviews from The Guardian, Total Film, Little White Lies and Mark Kermode. Laura is a BIFA and BAFTA Connect member, a BFI Academy mentor for young writers, a previous Women of the Future finalist, as well as a judge for the Global Undergraduate Awards in Theatre, Music and Film and an Associate Lecturer in Screenwriting at the University of Lincoln. As a playwright, Laura has had over 50 plays produced nationally and internationally, working with theatres including Hull Truck, the Almeida and Durham Gala. She is a current New Perspectives New Associate and runs her own Midlands-based theatre company, Fury Theatre, exploring “female stories told with fire”. Laura has previously written for EastEnders: E20, and is developing projects for the stage, television and film.

“Being Associate Artist at Nottingham Playhouse has been a huge learning curve to understand more about how a regional producing theatre operates, and the combination of creative and business-minded decisions that are being taken every day.”